I'm a tad jealous of people who got to do this. My work just got busier. It was like normal except people were dying and I had all my groceries delivered.
Ah yes. As an "essential worker" it was nice that for about 3.5 minutes it was acknowledged that all of us "unskilled" workers were required for society to function and then get nothing for it except more work and exposure to to a deadly disease.
Don't forget the "Heroes work here" banners! Those were nice
"we spent a ton of money on these meaningless banners, posters and out of touch ad campaigns to get people to buy from us."
"Sorry, times are tough, we have to lay off a bunch of you, and we can't afford to give anyone raises. But, to show we are all in this together, I have volunteered my 3rd spare car for a charity raffle. All of you will buy tickets, starting at the low cost of a banana. That's right only fifty dollars, all proceeds will be donated to the children in need in my house. So please think of the children during these trying time for your chance to win a nft signed photo of my 3rd spare car, and remember it's for the needy children."
Yeah I’m a software engineer so the only thing that changed was I got to wear more comfortable pants and didn’t have to drive to work. I still felt mentally exhausted after working all day and didn’t have the energy to pursue any hobbies
I still think the most eye opening part was watching the smog clear up in real time in India where the Himalayan mountains became visible again to many parts of the north
Same in Denver. It has never been that clear ever. That's what I guess it could be like if we actually started to fight greenhouse gases for real.
And then animals started being seen a lot more around here.
Sigh
I saw so much wildlife in my city. Including a deer for once. Drunk ass me: well deer, looks like me the other essential workers and you inherited the earth.
Of course the bankers survived. Of course they would.
The visibility in Bangkok was nuts. Normally I expect to see smog rising up by 7 every morning, but the skies were like Montana clear.
I worked for the hospital system... I only remember dreading tomorrow and wishing for a moment to catch my breath. I didn't really get to work from home and I rarely got time off outside of my schedule.
It sucked! I didn't even get to enjoy other people's enjoyment 👎
I live in a country where the vaccination rate barely reached 40%, I just remember being depressed and disappointed at the lack of humanity and empathy of my fellow countrymen not to mention the amount of stupid shit being posted online.
Must have been nice. I was an "essential" worker so I spent the entire time busting my ass in the middle of a packed grocery store, terrified of being assaulted by some angry dicknosed moron and bringing their lethal infection home to my elderly parents. I started having panic reactions to seeing unmasked faces, even those of close family members I was living with. Meanwhile, I kept hearing all these people talk about being paid twice my wages to sit at home and learn new skills like I had always wished I could afford to do.
And what did I get for all of my hard work? A fancy pin from my employer with a letter patting themselves on the back for protecting us. They didn't protect us at all! They actively defied the mask mandate and told us it was our own fault if customers threatened or attacked us for wearing one!
I felt with the same thing, god did I hate that shit. Our place opened an hour early to allow seniors to shop, but I’m pretty sure from what I saw we were open an hour early, were we allowed to come in an hour early to get the same work done? Fuck no. Did they hire on additional staff to allow us to get everything done? God fucking no. God I hated that place. I was so jealous of people that got to stay home. I was on my local reddit at the time and some one suggested doing that dumb thing of “he, lets all yell out our windows at 8 or 9.” I replied fuck no, I have to go to bed at that time and get up super early, I didn’t want to hear a bunch of entitled fucks screaming for five minutes and while I’m trying to go to sleep. Yeah people with an office job got a glimpse of the good life, miserable fucks working retail were treated so much worse then working regular retail. I always say I can tell who hasn’t worked retail before.
And a reminder that the ‘extroverted’ were ‘suffering constantly’ and decided everyone must be so they made going back into the office mandatory
If by "extroverted" you mean middle management that realized that they are largely superflous without offices.
“Everyone”
Edit: as a project manager who stayed home for months, I find the ignorant privilege blasting from these kinds of statements enraging. How can someone be so blind to the world around them, that they don’t even realize that other human beings had a vastly different experience?
You can tell who the introverts and who the extroverts were during the pandemic. For those that got to stay at home:
Extroverts: "My mental health is crumbling! I'll never be the same after this. Literally the worst thing that's ever happened to me!"
Introverts: "I just beat a handful of games in my backlog, read 4 books, started learning how to make Chinese food at home, and I just started learning Spanish on Duolingo. I'll never be the same after this!"
I know for many it was a nightmare, but as an introvert it was amazing. I was an "essential worker" so I still had to go into work a few days a week, but the office was most empty and wfh was amazing. Oh and the no traffic thing was chefs kiss.
When companies decided that COVID was costing them too much in profits, and workers couldn't be micro-managed from home or on a rotating office schedule, is when things went to shit.
Oh fuck. I have borderline PTSD from those days. Working for critical infrastructure and my wife as a medic. We’ve never ever worked so hard.
And people just being paid furlough and picking up fucking hobbies while we were nearly dead from overwork.
Fun fucking times.
I had people telling me that medical workers didn't deserve extra pay because it was "expected" that they would work in dangerous situations. Fucking called them heroes but couldn't afford to pay them what they were owed.
I remember my brother suffering from depression because he just no way of getting out of his apartment
I remember people people dying and not being able to go meet/help them
I remember the working class suffering because they just couldn't work
I am not blaming anyone but it wasn't "singing and dancing" for most people except the most privileged
The ‘most privileged’ we’re throwing ‘Covid parties’. They were the ones pushing ahead in line for limited vaccines. They were the ones out at ski resorts while sick. They were the ones who denied Covid but went out and got Covid and then demanded treatment, putting more than necessary pressure on a limited and very strained emergency system.
I don’t think the home bodies are your enemy here.
I work in a hospital. I continued to commute to work and do my job through all of the shortages and all of the uncertainty. I died a little each day I had to stop my then 3.5yo twins from rushing to hug me at the door so I could change, drop my clothes in the wash, and wash my hands before they touched me. Then they stopped trying. It was a year before I was greeted at the door with a hug. I knelt there crying the first time they did it again.
I saw all my friends doing all the lock down things and knew that society and employers would never make it up to those of us who worked through it all. We didn't even get pizza parties because my hospital had a no shared food policy for infection prevention.
I walked past maskless protestors outside my hospital accusing of us every ludicrous talking point there was. For the first time in my career I questioned why I did it. Why was I risking my family's health and my own to take care of THEM.
Yes... #blessed
Still had to work myself and ngl I was really envious of people who got to stay home :( in food service we just got more and more yelled at by people
The jumping between "you're a hero!" (no, just have bills) and how absolutely insane people would get was enough to give whiplash. I mean, there have always been some assholes to deal with, but I swear they upped their game with COVID.
And our economies went to shit, our global supply chains broke (for years after), prices surged (except gas!), mental health issues exploded, the US split even harder apart politically... It was grand.
And our economies went to shit,
Because there was no plan in place after President Cheeto smeared shit on the walls
our global supply chains broke (for years after),
Because they are built on the idea that outsourcing labor for profit is the best plan
prices surged (except gas!),
Because the overlords realized their cheap labor couldn't work, and they needed to squeeze every penny they could from the goods that had already been manufactured.
mental health issues exploded,
Because people actually had time to realize how fucked things were, instead of being corralled into the office every day like cattle.
the US split even harder apart politically.
That was the plan already, the pandemic was just convenient. As soon as that was over they moved onto women's rights, and then trans right, ad infinitum.
Because people actually had time to realize how fucked things were, instead of being corralled into the office every day like cattle.
This hits close to home. I took a week off work this summer just to relax and stay home. And ended up having a panic attack by the end of the week. Just because I actually had time to think.
👆
I'm going to go on a limb here an assume this was said by someone in their 20's with no kids and very little responsibilities.
Hell no, I was buried in a depression hole and couldn't leave the house
No. I remember ridiculous amounts of work stress, a firehose of constant bullshit coming from the mouth of the president, depression, lack of fitness, and isolation. I harbor no nostalgia about quarantine.
Remember when the environment improved AND workers were happier because WFH was a thing?
Ah yes, "everyone". I'm not even in healthcare, but as an "Essential Worker", I got to be exposed to the the virus before a vaccine was available as well as extra work, abusive people, and anti-vaxxer blame. The entitlement...
Where does the flour for the bread come from ?
From the essential workers who don't get to enjoy this wonderful utopia everyone is so excited about. Ask healthcare workers how they liked the pandemic.
Yes. It was awesome.
Ahh yes I loved life when we all had to remain isolated from each other because there was a highly infectious disease spreading around the world with no real way to treat it and millions of people died. Is that what life is supposed to be like?
Mhmm. Great job reading between the lines. That's exactly the point, not, "Commuting to and from work and school and mandatory events is more time consuming than we realize. If we get at least some of that time back, as happened coincidentally during quarantine, our lives could improve." Nope. Definitely your thing.
A lot of negative opinions on the tweet author here but there's one thing I'd like to note. My own experience during the pandemic was much worse than my average life, it was depressing to keep staying home at all time, I got infected, didn't get a proper medical attention for non-covid related stuff, etc. But after time passes the negatives look smoother and the positives get brighter, like that there were no useless meetings, much less pressure for doing stuff, and so on.
Also, I'm not sure that the author meant it to be 'pandemic isolation was great', more like 'it has shown us that there are things to be done at home'. Although for medical and essential workers it rather was time when they barely got home at all, but if we get to spend more time at home without the pandemic, then they will not be overburdened, I guess.
Remember house imprisonment where everyone lost their job and could not get toilet paper?
I remember people working from...home! Crazy concept! Streets were clear of traffic, air was more breathable and clean most people were more happy except muh face diaper people.
I remember how awesome it was isolating in my private life so I didn't share my heightened exposure with the people I loved, while I worked to transport people dying of covid from little podunk hospitals in towns that worked hard to pretend they didn't need to change a thing to any port in the storm.
I remember then getting broken up with, because the people I loved also wanted to pretend they didn't need to change anything while my work was filled with death.
Yeah. I remember what life is supposed to be like.
Yea, not many of us were so lucky.
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